Dolores Is Back

Published May 31, 2018 · Updated July 6, 2022

Gents and lady,

Wanted to get your take on a new theory I have. This episode clearly sets up the cradle as a matrix-like simulation world, and introduces simulation vs. real-world as a new variable, just like time periods were a variable in season 1. I think there is still some slight of hand happening between worlds and between time periods in season 2.

What if the conversation between Dolores and Arnold in the first scene occurred waaay in the past, early days when Arnold was still trying to create AI, and this is something happening only in the simulator world, before he moved the AI to physical bodies. (That’s why this room is so minimal looking.) What if this was Arnold inserting himself into the simulator world, and the fidelity test was necessary to see whether he had created an accurate digital version of himself.

The train could be a metaphor for the “port” that goes between simulator and real world. That’s why Bernard ends up on the train when he plugs in matrix style, and that’s why Dolores (first AI) needs the train to get out of the cradle. What if in the second to last scene of this episode, when Dolores says “my daddy told me to leave this place”,” she means the Cradle and Arnold, not Westworld and Abernathy, and this scene is also happening in the past, in the simulator. Then she rams the train into the Mesa, representing the AI “escape” from the simulator into the real world, perhaps the start of the reveries.

Haven’t fully thought this one through, but it does provide an interesting version of the AI escape problem unfolding. It also might explain why Dolores seems a bit dull in parts of this season, because she is still in cradle world and hasn’t yet developed fully.

Love the podcast, keep up the good work.

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